rubio, adding, "president obama is targeting the second amendment rights of law-abiding citizens." still, democrat patrick leahy, who chairs the senate judiciary committee, told an audience at georgetown university he intends to hold hearings on the proposals starting in two weeks. >> there are some who say nothing will pass. i disagree with that. what i'm interested in is what we can get. >> reporter: and that might mean putting the assault weapons ban on the back burner in favor of less-controversial measures. california democrat mike thompson leads the party's new gun task force and is a gun owner himself. >> i think we need to look at each piece as to how much good it will do if it passes, and we need to prioritize. and the two areas that i think are most important are universal background checks and the assault magazines. >> reporter: and do you think that those two things stand a fighting chance in this congress? >> oh, yeah. i'm the eternal optimist. >> reporter: the republican house speaker, john boehner, said he will wait to see what the democratically controlled senate ca